Acting Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said Dabawenyos will fiercely defend their right to live in peace, free from threats of criminals and all kinds of troublemakers, as most of them came to Davao from the Visayas and Luzon to seek greener pasture and live in harmony with each other.
This was what the plucky city executive told last Friday night some 300 members of some 50 Rotary clubs in various parts of Mindanao being trained on their duties before assuming as club presidents, secretaries, committee chairs and district officers for the incoming Rotary year 2012-2013 to start in July.
Acting on behalf of daughter Mayor Sara D. Carpio, Duterte turned over the symbolic key of the city to Rotary District Governor Ted Locson Jr. during the so-called District Assembly –Presidents and Secretaries Training (Distas), May 5-6 at the Marco Polo Hotel. Locson, who is from Cebu City, later turned over the post of district governor of Rotary International 3860 to a Dabawenyo civic leader, lawyer Leoncio “Nonoy” Villa-Abrille.
First District Rep. Karlo B. Nograles also addressed the participants during the Distas’ final day luncheon.
“Majority of the long-time residents of Davao are migrants,” the vice mayor said, adding most of them came from Cebu and the other Visayan-speaking provinces of the Visayas and a sprinkling of professionals and merchants from Luzon, all of them answering the call of the national leaders then to go South and seek their place in the sun,” said Duterte who has served the city government for three decades now –about two years as appointed OIC vice mayor, 18 years as elected mayor, three years as congressman and now back as vice mayor, after more than decade as city fiscal.
He related to the Rotarians how the city during the initial years as mayor got rid of criminal elements, including corrupt and criminal-minded policemen, kidnappers, terrorists and even so-called anti-communist crusaders who turned out to be involved in big-time crimes.
He said the city is again on the alert against trouble-makers in the wake of earthshaking developments in some parts of the world, including the killing of Osama Bin Laden of the Al Queda.
“The city was bombed a number of times before, first in a Catholic church and then in the Davao International Airport and later the Sasa wharf and we will not allow a repetition of this devastating experience,” said Duterte who also touched on the more recent challenges of Davao as one of Mindanao’s fastest-growing city.
He said the city needs billions of pesos to fix its drainage problems alone.
For his part, Rep. Nograles paid tribute to the Rotarians for the “culture of service” that distinguishes them from other civic groups.
“You have the power to mobilize and harness resources to redeem many of our communities from the bondage of grinding poverty and deprivation of opportunities for a better life,” Nograles said.
He said that the Rotary leaders “can marshal a sustained, continuing wave of volunteerism among the better privileged and bring them to the forefront of programs and projects that target the improvement of the quality of life of the poor..”
“As Rotarians, you stand as examples of civic duty and social responsibility, showing our people what it takes, what it means, how it works – to be a good citizen, an upright human and a moral force for good in society,” the young lawmaker said.
Nograles said Rotarians “remind us what governance should be and what it is about –moral and ethical, committed to truth and fairness, competent and effective in marshaling the resources of our communities for the greater benefit of all.” [AMA]
